Category Archives: Android

Battle of the Giants – Camera shootout iPhone 6 Plus vs Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge

Android, Apple, Tech News,

Mobilsiden has compared the iPhone 6 Plus with the new Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge (using final release firmware).

There are some great shots from both cameras, and whilst Mobilsiden concludes the S6 Edge is the clear winner, I personally think both cameras take good photos and its not conclusive enough in its testing.

More comparisons are needed with people, movement, and general day to day scenarios. However, it still gives you a good idea of what both phones are able to achieve.

Via – http://www.mobilsiden.dk/nyheder/kameraduel-apple-iphone-6-plus-vs-samsung-galaxy-s6-edge,lid.34134/

Hidden Feature of the HTC One M9 – it cooks food at 132 degrees –

Android, Tech News

“HTC usually doesn’t mind hearing people talk about how hot its devices are but this might not be quite the kind of attention it was looking for. Phone Probe points us to Dutch website Tweakers.net, which recently ran the HTC One M9 through the GFXBench benchmark test and found that the device’s surface temperature hit a frightening 55.4 degrees Celsius, or nearly 132 degrees Fahrenheit.”

Surely that’s a feature. Out camping, run GFXBench benchmark, and fry your eggs to perfection. Or is this signs of the Snapdragon 810 over heating issues coming to light? In reality, people don’t run benchmarks so hopefully this won’t be a problem and/or HTC will have released a firmware update prior to launch to manage the heat aspect. Also, the test was also done with the power lead plugged in which adds to the heat build up. But adding some common sense to this situation, the HTC One M9 has the largest heat dissipation possible due to its aluminium build. So, issue or non issue? More likely non issue but something to be aware of.

Source – http://bgr.com/2015/03/16/htc-one-m9-benchmark/

Sony Xperia Z4 – First photos of Sony’s new flagship – updated

Android, Tech News, ,

Sony has yet to reveal its hand on its new Sony Xperia Z4 flagship smartphone, but if the tweet by @onleaks is anything to go by it is following the same body language as the Z3. Dimensions are meant to be 146.3 x71.9 x7.2mm. To be honest, this styling should not come as a surprise to anyone.
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Technology working in Harmony – FitBit Charge HR, Viewranger, MyFitnessPal, Note 4

Android, Tech News, , , ,

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Sometimes we buy phones and gadgets just because we like the look of it, or are tempted by the product or even because we know somebody who bought one, and we also want one. But wouldn’t it be good if we could buy technology with a purpose that all integrated properly.

Above is a screen shot from my dashboard view on the FitBit app. This is a cross platform app that can be installed on android, iOS, Windows Phone and viewable via the web too. It is reading data from my FitBit Charge HR. (my review of the FitBit Charge HR https://gavinsgadgets.com/2015/02/17/fitbit-charge-hr-review-including-using-it-with-myfitness-pal/ ) . I am using the FitBit Charge HR to help me lose weight and get fitter. This piece of tech does exactly what I need without any unnecessary frills.

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It also has intelligent software. Above is a route I walked but as it was across Dartmoor it is not very detailed. A word of warning. If you instruct the app to start an exercise, it uses your location (GPS) from your phone. As I was on Dartmoor, there was no cell reception, so it warned me it hadn’t got a fix yet, but I overrode the warning and hit the start exercise button.If I had waited a few more seconds it would have got a fix. After 20 mins, it showed that I had walked 9.1 miles. Miracle or mistake 🙂 Now, this is where the FitBit software was clever enough to allow me to delete that one route, and after a sync with the internet a bit later, it corrected all the data and adjusted the step, calories and everything else on my dashboard. I restarted my exercise, this time being more patient and getting a GPS fix first before hitting the start button.

So all was going well until I reached a place called Laughter Tor. The weather had suddenly turned for the worse. It was already minus 2 degrees centigrade, but now dense fog had appeared and it was impossible to see ahead. And this is where I used another piece of technology, an app called Viewranger. Again this app is cross platform. I have a proper OS map of Dartmoor and began to use it to track my route and plan my route ahead. Below is a screen shot showing the path I walked.

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One of the clever features of the app, is the ability to trace back the route walked, and at one point due to the deterioration in weather this was an option. Also as the map is an OS map, elevations are clearly marked.

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And finally, the last part of the tech puzzle, is food and drink managed by MyFitnessPal. Note the entry at the end, showing the FitBit steps adjustment. This can add to your total allowed calories or deduct if you are having a lazy day.

All the above software and hardware is managed by my Samsung Note 4. It’s high quality screen and size help with the map tracking too and its battery longevity was excellent as well.

It feels great when everything works so well together!

Acer Iconia 8 Tablet (A1-840) – Review

Android, Reviews, Tech News, , ,

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Welcome to my review of the Acer Iconia 8 Tablet. This comes with a 8 inch screen and 16gb storage/1gb ram all wrapped in a aluminium body. The build quality is one of the first things that you notice about this tablet. Just look at the photos.

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Due to its size and slight curves, the tablet fits nicely in your hand. For times when you need a camera, it comes equipped with dual cameras and microSD™ card slot, dual speakers, producing a good sound experience. The Intel® Atom™ processor with 7.5 hours of battery life has allowed me to use this all day and with a reasonable nippy response when jumping from app to app.

Key Specifications –

– Android™ 4.4.4
– Intel Atom Z3735G Quad-core 1.33 GHz
– DDR3L SDRAM
– Micro SD card support
– 20.3 cm (8″) WXGA (1280 x 800), Active Matrix TFT Colour LCD
– Wi-Fi
– 1 GB ram, 16 GB Flash Memory
– Connectivity – GPS, WiFi, LAN, IEEE 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, Microphone
– Battery – 4,600maH, Video playback 7.5 hours
– 2MP Front camera, 8MP rear camera
– HDMI (mini) port

The screen is only WXGA and I can notice the lack of resolution compared to some far more expensive tablets that have 1080p and above screens, but then again those tablets costs a lot more money. For many people the WXGA won’t matter. It does mean however, that there are less pixels to push so the tablet generally runs fairly fast in use. Rather unusual is a separate connection for a mini hdmi port as shown in the photos.

The Acer Iconia 8 is based on a near stock experience, but it does have some software tricks for turning on the device. Laying all 5 fingers on the screen allows you to turn on device or turn on with a selected app of your choice. You can do the same thing using 2 thumbs. Both these features can be turned off too. The tablet also features a split screen mode which is so simple to use. Say your using Chrome, tap the split screen icon bottom and the you can choose from a number of apps which support this mode. There were a decent selection of apps supported too from Chrome, Play Store, all Acer apps, accuweather, Amazon, audible, Amazon app store, astro file manager, calculator, eBay, email, Gmail, Evernote, maps, people, play books, officesuite, play movies, play music and youtube. Another neat option is Acer Intellispin. This makes rotation smarter. When you rotate the tablet the screen image can automatically rotate to match the new orientation, even if the tablet is lying flat. In addition you can add users which each have their own profile.

Acer installs many apps as standard. All those mentioned above and Acer cloud apps for docs, files, music, photos, and videos. By installing the same apps on your home computer you can access everything via the cloud on the tablet. Acer assessories, Acer portal, Acer suggests, Amazon Kindle, Amazon Local, Amazon Music, barcode scanner, booking.com hotels, Wild Tangent games portal, istorytime, Skype, top HD games, Tunein Radio and Zinio are also installed. Apart from that it is a near stock experience. The keyboard is Google Keyboard. You can uninstall several of the apps and or disable them if you want.

It is also preloaded with far too much extra software in my opinion. Some of it is useful, but perhaps Acer would have been better to include optional download links. The 16 storage model have just under 9gb free to the user. The loudspeaker goes fairly loud. Sound through the headphones is reasonable too. The camera takes ok photos in good light but does have many options from picture collage, various capture modes (normal, HDR, continuous, panoramic, presentation capturing), scenes (barcode, fireworks, landscape, night, night portrait, sports), white balance, timer, EV, ISO (auto, 100-800), metering, scale, resolution, Touch shutter, camcorder settings include time lapse, mute, 1080p, 720p & 480, storage, location, grid and a tutorial. In fact there are so many options in the camera that you should be able to photograph many scenarios.

The Acer Iconia 8 is available from Amazon currently for £139.58, Acer Iconia Tab 8 deal at Amazon UK which makes it fairly good value.

BlackBerry launches new secure tablet

Android, Blackberry, Tech News

(Reuters) – Seeking to extend its range of secure mobile devices, BlackBerry Ltd said on Saturday it was launching a high-security tablet, developed with International Business Machines Corp and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

The SecuTABLET, based on Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S 10.5 and being presented by BlackBerry unit Secusmart at tech fair CeBIT 2015 in Germany, reflects the Canadian company’s stress on secure connections for governments and businesses as it seeks to preserve a niche market after a drubbing in recent years at the hands of emerging smartphone makers such as Apple Inc.

“Security is ingrained in every part of BlackBerry’s portfolio, which includes voice and data encryption solutions,” said Dr. Hans-Christoph Quelle, chief executive officer of Secusmart GmbH, in a statement on the new device.

The device was undergoing certification by the German Federal Office for Information Security for secure rating, the statement said, adding that the new tablet used the same security technology as the Secusmart Security Card.

“Working alongside IBM and Samsung, we have added the last link in the chain of the Federal Security Network. Subject to certification of the SecuTABLET, German government agencies will have a new way to access BlackBerry’s most secure and complete communications network in the world,” Quelle said.

This is one way for BlackBerry not to have to worry about producing hardware and focus more on software services.

Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge – where to view them this weekend

Android, Tech News,

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Samsung’s Experience Stores received display stock of the new Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. Unfortunately,  they are not allowed to display them until Saturday.

So if you’re near one of the Samsung Experience Stores this Saturday and thereafter,  go have a play with the new phones. You next decision will be deciding on which version,  edge of straight and then the colour.

Source – Samsung Experience Stores,  Bristol

Google Now Launcher on the Samsung Note 4 – Your opinion wanted

Android, Tech News

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Screen shot of the Google Now Launcher on the Samsung Note 4.

First up you get enlarged icons and only 4 icons per row except bottom row. Then there is loads of spacing. Swiping to the left reveals the Google Now cards.

So what’s your view. Out of place or ok or something else.

Reason for doing this was simply that I got bored with Nova and Apex Launcher.

Update – reset up Nova from scratch. So which do you prefer. Nova below.
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Google launches new online store for hardware

Android, Tech News

Google has widened its plans to sell more hardware accessories and devices by creating a dedicated website at https://store.google.com/ .

The UK storefront is selling phones, tablets, chromebooks, TV & Video, Android Wear, accessories and Nest products.

Of particular interest is the fact that the Asus ZenWatch is being sold on the UK store front for £199, and the new Pixel Chromebook will be available soon.